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Banter 24: Schizophrenia

Welcome to the twenty-fourth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month’s Banter topic comes to us from the ever helpful Eelis Kiy, capsuleer behind the “Where the frack is my ship” blog. She asks: How does your real life personality compare to who you are as a character in EVE? Does a good leader of people in the real world make a good leader of pilots in game? Or vice-versa? Do your real-life skills help you with the roles you fulfill in your corporation or alliance? Or do you behave completely differently? Does the anonymity of the Internet allow you to thrive on the tears of others in New Eden whilst you work as a good Samaritan away from your keyboard? Or are you as mean outside of your pod as you are inside it? Have experiences in EVE Online affected your behavior, skills or attitudes outside of the game?

Better late than never? At least its in the right calendar month this time!

An odd one this month. I wanted to do last month’s but I was crazy busy, so I ended up skipping it. I’ll have to warble about Incarna in my own time I guess.

My real life persona is probably comparable to that of my characters. ICly of course its a bit different, with one being a bit more serious than me, and one being a quite a lot less serious. This distinction was a conscious effort by myself to disassociate each of the characters. On the one hand there was serious Roleplay politics to be getting on with on Adrielle, but there was mostly faffing about not frivolousness to do on Kalahari. Keeping the two separate meant that when I wanted to unwind, I could do so without fear of being directly harassed about something much more ‘srs bzns’.

Vegetables

I began by stating that Kalahari was a housemate – something which was previously true in fact: I inherited the character in the middle of 2004, when she stopped being interested in EVE. Its a strange thing, because I would not say I am a compulsive liar at all, but for this, apparently I was.

Further down the line, I relinquished the whole political shenanigans thing, and subsequently, the need to keep them both separate was no longer required. I stopped trying so hard with both of them, and if anyone asked I would say who my ‘alt’ was with no qualms about it. I still don’t go proclaiming it out loud in game though. I don’t really see the point of doing so, do you?

The interesting thing though, is that even OOC, unless you’ve known me for a while, you’d be forgiven for thinking they were two different people. In fact, some people have been very surprised to hear otherwise…

Nainana > btw are kalahari and Adrielle the same person ?
Adrielle Firewalker > yes
Nainana > oh, i always thought you were 2 different ones

I don’t know what the compulsion is. Whether I’m a little bit in-character all the time, or what, but that above quote is not exactly uncommon.

But I guess it just highlights my point. I’m more like Adrielle than Kalahari, even after all these years of not trying to keep them separate.

Meat

So, the actual questions, eh? That would be good I think, having successfully sent anyone reading this to sleep with my inane blathering!

How does your real life personality compare to who you are as a character in EVE?

I’m not really sure. I’m a lot more playful in-game than out though, I know that much. I also find it much easier to connect and chat with people in the game than I do out of it, which is part of why I’ve stuck around for so long; I meet new and interesting people that I like all the time. I think in the real world I haven’t seen much of a need to meet new people. If I meet people at work, great; if not, it doesn’t really bother me. I’m not going to quit life like I would quit Eve if there were no more interesting people in it. 😛

Does a good leader of people in the real world make a good leader of pilots in game? Or vice-versa?

No idea. I’ve never had much of a chance to apply skills I used in-game with the alliance-leading stuff to real life. I honestly can’t remember if I was a good leader or not either; it has been too long and I don’t feel adequately qualified to make the judgement anyway.

I have had supervisory and leadership roles in the past, but they were on such a smaller scale (usually just over a few people, rather than a few hundred), that I don’t think its fair to compare. I’d never had much in the way of complaints from those under me though: Usually only the people above me complaining about stuff. Gotta love middle-management!

Do your real-life skills help you with the roles you fulfil in your corporation or alliance? Or do you behave completely differently?

Web stuff to industrial crazycakes? I think a logical, orderly approach to industry helps a lot, but its a tenuous link at best.

I was really into games development for a long time, and I do love puzzles and optimisation processes (yah, I know; nerrrrd), which helps a lot with maximizing the isk:effort ratio and getting all the industrial stuff as streamlined as possible. Thankfully there’s enough variables involves with that that it’ll keep me busy for a long time yet.

Does the anonymity of the Internet allow you to thrive on the tears of others in New Eden whilst you work as a good Samaritan away from your keyboard? Or are you as mean outside of your pod as you are inside it?

I’m not mean inside my pod. Hopefully others can attest to this. I do come up with huge, crazy plans that could be considered evil, but they are always too big for me to bother with, and the potential gain for me, or my corporation is not worth the effort. Plus, y’know, I actually enjoy being nice. 🙂

Have experiences in EVE Online affected your behaviour, skills or attitudes outside of the game?

The industrial optimisation stuff has certainly helped with my OCD. And by helped, I mean made it worse. You’ll notice that I changed all the US spelled words in the questions to UK spelling.

I think Eve teaches patience. For a game for which small-scale combat principally comprises of 30 seconds pewpew after potentially hours of waiting and organising a fleet, I think patience is key. Mass industrial stuff is much the same. Money that I invest into production today I don’t see the profits for until three months down the line, purely because of how I run the business. Shorter cycles would mean I could recruit more people and not worry so much about peeps cancelling my jobs, but would also more than double the time it would take to make the same amount of ISK.

Its interesting in a way, because the more sociable I become in the game, the less sociable I become out of it. Its a very slow and gradual process, and something I can only really look at in detail after having played for years and years, which thankfully I have. The psychology of social interactivity and how it reflects and affects people outside of the game is something that really fascinates me. If I could get sponsorship to write something along those lines for a doctorate, I would take it!

I don’t think Eve has affected my attitudes outside of the game. I don’t really consider myself to be more or less tolerant of other opinions and ideas than when I started playing. If I do, its more from realising adulthood than because of a videogame I’ve played a lot. I could be wrong, and its possible that given I’ve been playing for such a long time, that Eve has had a small, gradual push or pull on my attitudes over time, but its certainly not as noticable as behaviour or skills.

Banter 20: ScamwichesWelcome to the twentieth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either

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One thought on “Banter 24: Schizophrenia”

Thoughtful and interesting insight, and quite intimate, I almost feel like a voyeur.

“But your honour, I must protest, the window was wide open!”

I can sympathise with the OCD, and Eve has plenty of itty-bitties to paw over. I didn’t notice that you spelled correctly in the UK style. Although I *might* have noticed an ‘s’ where a ‘d’ should be…

Also interesting that one question assumes a player in Eve is either a meanie, or a meanie…

I’d venture that Eve Online is simply a medium, albeit a gorgeous one with cool ships and stunning views, and things that go boom (and pew, and whoosh, and…). But the people we interact with are real (even when they’re playing a part), and the actions and events which are thrust or fall upon us are real (even when it mostly involves – Noooo, my ship?!). Those are the things that shape us. Whether its being scammed in Jita, being cut up on the A1 and given the bird, the unexpected kindness of a stranger helping you up when you fall… or the labourers across the docking bay jeering, as you pretend you meant to plant your face in the gutter, to closer look at the curious piece of Rifter debris bearing an uncanny resemblance to your starboard engine exhaust manifold.

Slight aside – according to wikipedia “manifold” comes from the Olde English “manigfeald” – I can only assume 1500 years ago they were trying to build a Rifter?!

Trying to build a Rifter without an appropriate power source (steam) is utterly futile, so I think they probably gave up!

I think the vast majority of people in Eve *are* selfish. I am to an extent as well. As much as I help people out, and give iskies and prizes away to people, I do have a hell of a lot of ISK myself that does pretty much near nothing for myself or anyone else, apart from make me feel warm and fuzzy that I have it. Its so wasteful

But on the topic of explodey-things; I’ve tried it, and I always feel bad for killing someone in the game unless they try to kill me first, and even then I get this twinge of guilt that maybe there was another way… Which is ridiculous of course, because there was no other way – she/he needed to die. Maybe I’m just the world’s biggest carebear-shaped piñata. Hit me and I bleed candy and love. 😐

I can relate to the guilt-thing. I’ve never felt comfortable ganking for giggles – for want of a better term. I would make the worst pirate. I think it comes down to rules of engagement for me – the distinction between self-defence, highway robbery, and war. A character flaw that persists through all my me’s – annoyingly, even the ones created to try and take a walk on the other side of the fence.

And, I’m failing terribly to see a down side to bleeding candy and love… I mean, its candy, and its love? Unless someone’s “taking a lend” of said bleeding, in which case they do indeed need to die swiftly and horribly, in plasma and flame and ‘splodey bits.

I made a ‘pirate’ character back in 2006. I never did get around to shooting anyone in the face. She has 32mil SP and is specced for Caldari interceptors. She sidelined about a year ago to beef up tanking skills and get into a nighthawk for some reason I forget.